The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-06-11


very respectable family occupied this
house, and had occupied it undisturbed
for some time. The locality was not
thickly settled and consequently was
quiet and peaceable. So far as was
known no crime had ever been commit
ted there and there was no earthly rea-
son for any unearthlY visitations. But
one morning it was discovered that
every door on the lower floor OF the
house, though all had certainly been
closed at night, was wide open. A thor
ough search revealed that nothing had
been stolen, so the theory OF burglars
had to be abandoned. The same thing
occurred the next night and the family
began to feel uneasy. The third night
portion of the older members of the
household remained awake to investi-
gate. Toward midnight the SOFT creak-
ing noise of door being slowly opened
was heard, followed by violent bang
as it was suddenly shut. The same
thing followed in quick succession as
to three other doors, and then all was
still.
The rapidity with which this was
done was such that before the head OF
the house could recover from his aston"
ishment and rush down the stairs the
ghostly fun was over and nothing
whatever of an unusual nature was
visible. After an hour of waiting and
watching the family went to bed again,
when the banging once more COM
menced and was kept up at brief in
tervals for an hour. The next night
gave a repetition of the performance
and also the next. The morning after,
tired of tbs monotonous entertain
ment, the gentleman decided to move,
and went out to hunt for another
house. For some of those reasons
which married men are so often called
upon to explain-though never entirely
satisfactorily-he was detained by bust
ness downtown, and the time for the
evenings amusement had arrived be-
fore he returned home.
About eleven O'Clock, when every
one else was asleep, the lady Of the
house, from her room upstairs, heard
the parlor door creak. Summoning all
her courage, she rushed out into the
hall, and looking over the baluster, she
saw the figure of what appeared to be
child three or four years
of age swoop down, head first, from
some unknown hiding-place, and with
both hands violently slam the door
shat. The infant was clad in single,
flowing garment of spotless white, and
its form and features were plainly visi-
BILE. The lady did what almost any
other lady would have done in like
circumstances-scre and tainted
away, her last recollection of the af-
fair being that of seeing the infantile
apparation vanish into ethereal moth
ingness. Her husband arrived upon the
scene just in time to hear her scream,
and soon had her restored to conscious
ness. But her terror was such that she
refushed to stay in the house another
night. And she didn't. Another place
had been secured, and the family mov-
ed the next day. But the story was told
in the neighborhood, and for a long
time the dwelling was empty. No one
would live in house where there was
\ positively one ghost and possibly two
one on each side of door.
One of the most remarkable of these
old-time ghosts was that of the phos-
phorescent mule that roamed over the
city lnorth of Thirty-frst street and
south of Twenty-second, a territory al
that date almost barren of dwellings.
This animal had browsed the prairi
grass, observed by few, for some time,
and those few described him as being
Enthusiastically mule, but hayinga de.
gree of luminosity that enabled him tC
be seen to great distance. No one
, had the temerity TO attempt to ap
proach him, for it was easy to see thai
, it was no earthly mule, but undeniably
, and unquestionably an Internal mule.
But there was one gentleman in the
vicinity who ridiculed and scoffed a
| this mongrel specter, and declared tina
: it was only the creature of imagination
t distorted by over-indulgence in the cx
hilarating fluid of the period, denomi
mated ginandsugar. 1t was to thi
. gentleman that befell the somewha
singular incident herewith related
t doubtless intended as salutary illus
t tration of the punishment that await
r all scoffers. He had been out in tn
D southern suburbs one afternoon look
a ing over some laIds, and at waysid
, inn had met some gentlemen residin,
a Whereabouts, talked over the land, an,
+ remained to supper. 1t was towar,
e eleven o'clock before the prosperity
Q value of the land had been decide,
t upon, and the parties started home
n ward. From Slst to 22d street wa
= then only barren stretch of low
I a..